ONC Unveils Phase 2 Winners of Health Data Exchange Challenge

February 23, 2017 - The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) continued its mission of promoting true EHR interoperability through the Move Health Data Forward Challenge, the agency-backed initiative to promote the development of application programming interfaces (APIs) that improve health data exchange.

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Each team first needed to meet the requirements of Phase 1 by presenting plans detailing how each application developer would design solutions to promote health data exchange. In Phase 1, ten winners were awarded $5,000 and moved on to Phase 2 of the competition wherein only five winners would be rewarded with a significantly more substantial cash reward.

The five Phase 2 winners are:

CedarBridge Group LLC: CareApproveTM is a smart phone app that allows patients to grant—and revoke—permission for providers to access, send, or receive health information electronically. Providers can use the CareApprove software plugin with their electronic health record (EHR) system to stay connected with their patients through the CareApprove mobile app and to communicate with one another through a secure messaging system.

EMR Direct: The HealthToGoTM solution facilitates the deployment of applications capable of leveraging multiple data sources in consumer mediated health data exchange. This minimizes the number of identities to maintain and grant data to store, allowing consumers to easily manage health data sharing, and improving the accessibility of patient health data while maintaining its privacy and security.

Foxhall Wythe LLC: DocketTM is a secure system for users to seamlessly store and share data with trusted care professionals, eliminating the need for tedious paper-based patient intake processes. This solution promotes HIPAA compliance through a User-managed Access approach and end-to-end encryption for all records as well as interoperability through industry-standard FHIR® messages. Authorization is accomplished via Quick Response (QR) code scan and an explicit OAuth 2.0 handshake.

Live and Leave Well, LLC: Live and Leave WellTM is a complete solution that provides both a consumer mediated exchange of end of life plans; and creates a transportable package of data about that person’s end of life plans that can be scored for goodness and shared with multiple systems using a combination open APIs and direct integration.

Lush Group, Inc.: The HealthyMePHR system empowers patients by giving them the ability to share, and authorize access to, their electronic health records. With a resource server providing HEART-enabled data, an authorization server to support patient policy, and a client to allow authorized users to view a patient’s records, HealthyMePHR addresses several key challenges facing patients and providers today. Additional planned features will continue to accelerate patient clinical data sharing, improving health and reducing the cost of healthcare.

Next on the horizon for the five Phase 2 winners is the third portion of the challenge, Phase 3, in which up to two innovators will have a shot at a $50,000 reward pending their success in implementing their API solution in a mobile or web-based app.

This ONC innovator challenge follows the EHR Use Experience Challenge — a similar competition to promote app development. In the EHR Use Experience Challenge, Phase 2 winner Herald Health designed an app for managing alerts through customizable push notifications tailored to each individual’s needs. Each challenger was required to use an open API and FHIR standards when designing their apps in an effort to promote the health IT standard and improve interoperability across the healthcare industry.